Shout Out / Voltron

The Lion and Vehicle Voltrons during Fleet of Doom.

Here are the shout-outs present in the Voltron franchise.

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Works with their own pages:

• Beast King GoLion
• Armored Fleet Dairugger XV
• Voltron: The Third Dimension
• Voltron Force
• Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Voltron: Defender of the Universe (Lion Force Voltron)

• Lion Force Voltron leans more into the fairy tale motif of GoLion. Like in the case of condensed fairy tales for children versus their original incarnations, the adaptation also Bowdlerised the bleak story of GoLion while giving more prominence to its comedic elements (like the Space Mice or Nanny).
• The soldiers of Planet Doom (after being changed into robots by the Voltron adaptation) are reminiscent of the droids of Star Wars fame. Or the Doombots of Dr. Doom of Fantastic Four fame.
  • They're also reminiscent of "Ming's Metal Men" or the disposable robot minions of Emperor Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon.
  • We can even go all the way back to the times of Isaac Asimov and the humanoid Killer Robots found in many of his sci-fi stories.
• When the Voltron Force forms Voltron and shouts, "Let's go, Voltron!" or "Let's go, Voltron Force!", they're actually matching the GoLion Team shout of "Let's! Go! Lion! (GoLion)"
• Keith's name might be a reference to how he's nicknamed "Chief (Chifu)" in GoLion.
  • Keith being retroactively named "Keith Akira Kogane" in later series and comics is obviously a GoLion reference.
  • Hunk's retroactive real name, in turn, is "Tsuyoshi Garrett", with "Tsuyoshi (Seido)" being his GoLion counterpart's name.
  • Several of the names of the Space Explorers, like Pidge (Darell Stoker) and Hunk (Tsuyoshi Garret), are nicknames referencing the ones used by the main cast of GoLion (Chief, Quiet, Moody, Hothead, and Shorty).
  • Princess Allura of Planet Arus is named after her alluring nature. "Allura" also sounds a lot like "Aurora", as in Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (Princess Fala's original design inspiration).
  • Combining the twins Takashi and Ryou Shirogane into Sven Holgersson makes Sven's Spared By Adaptation status more convincing.^note Sven being both brothers is also a deep-cut lore shout-out to the unfortunate fate of the twins in the source material.
  • Amusingly, in Voltron, "Raible" from GoLion is renamed "Coran". This is because "Raible" is actually a reference to The Bible, so Voltron's "Coran" is in turn a reference to the Islamic Bible or The Qur'an.^note In fact, GoLion uses a lot of Christian symbolism and Biblical Motifs, which helped make it more relatable to western audiences as Voltron.
• Allura's cousin Princess Romelle is from the Planet Pollux (of Castor and Pollux fame).
• Meanwhile, "Arus" might be a spelling variant of "Eris", the Greek goddess of strife and discord, or "Ares", the Greek god of war, to showcase how imperiled the planet is against Planet Doom and its forces.
• The name Planet Doom is reminiscent of Mount Doom of Lord of the Rings fame. In turn, the soldiers, gladiators, and Robeasts of Planet Doom are reminiscent of the Urukhai.
• Honerva/Haggar being combined with the Goddess of the Universe^note (responsible for separating Voltron/GoLion into five separate robot lions) has resulted in her becoming an even closer shout-out to the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Malificent from Sleeping Beauty^note in that her queenly goddess or sorceress form was her original form before she got corrupted into becoming a frightful old crone that's a Wicked Witch.
• The wisecracking Commander Cossack from the U.S.-only third season wears a horny Viking helmet as part of his design.
• The Voltron-original character of Queen Merla looks a lot like a Perky Goth version of Princess Allura mixed with the lipsticked looks of Land Team's Cinda or Drule Captain Twyla (sounds like "Twilight") from Vehicle Voltron.^note Not to be confused with Twyla from Lion Voltron
• It's one of many shows of the era that frequently makes use of the famous "ch-ch-ch-ch" sound effect from The Six Million Dollar Man.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe (Vehicle Team Voltron)

• Both Dairugger XV and Vehicle Team Voltron have more of a Star Trek feel to them, but even more so with Vehicle Team Voltron due to its incorporation of its Galaxy Alliance and Galaxy Garrison concepts into Lion Force Voltron.
  • The Galaxy Alliance in Dairugger XV refers to the planetary union of Earth, Sala, and Mira. The Galaxy Alliance in Voltron is eventually revealed to be the union of over 900 planets instead, making it more like Star Trek in sheer scope.
  • In an early episode, Vehicle Voltron discovers the planet they’re exploring is being terraformed by the Drules and they have a serious discussion over whether they should take the planet for themselves. It's the kind of discussion you’d expect on a good episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but since the series predated TNG by 3 years or so, it's more of a Star Trek: The Original Series shout-out.
• Because of its space theme, Vehicle Team indulges quite a bit in the same wipe transitions used by the at-the-time recently popular Star Wars film series that weren't present in the original footage of Dairugger XV.
• Commander Hawkins is probably named after Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island fame.
  • Rocky might be named after that Rocky (Balboa) or at least Rocky Marciano.
  • Commander Hazar has a unisex Turkish given name originating from a Turkic tribe's name who lived around the Caspian Sea between the 7^th and 11^th centuries.
  • Dorma, sister of Hazar, shares her name with the tragic first love of Marvel Comics' Sub-Mariner, whose skin was also a shade of blue.
  • Twyla from Vehicle Team Voltron has her name recycled from a one-shot Arusian character of the same name in Lion Force Voltron.
  • Captain Mongo might be named after the fictional planet of Mongo from Flash Gordon (the planet under the dominion of Ming the Merciless).
  • Emperor Zeppo might be named after Zeppo Marx of Marx Brothers fame.
• As a shout-out to what Keith announces whenever he and his team form Voltron, Jeff says everything Keith says except "Form arms and body," which he instead phrases as "Form arms and torso," when forming their Voltron.
  • Jeff, like Keith, also says "Form Blazing Sword!" when summoning the robot's BFS.
• Coincidentally, Prince Sincline's blue complexion matches that of the Galveston aliens, so Vehicle Voltron, the third season of Lion Voltron, and Fleet of Doom had Prince Lotor become the same race as the Drules of the Drule Empire. Therefore, in the Voltron continuity, Drules are known to have eye colors that are either red or yellow.
  • Sincline is actually half-Altean in GoLion, which is why he looks like a blue-skinned human. Also, Planet Doom became the new capital of the Drule Empire after the explosion of Planet Drule (Galveston) in Vehicle Voltron.
  • The presence of monstrous beings like King Zarkon from Planet Doom coexisting with humanoid beings like the Drules from Planet Drule adds a bit of Adaptational Diversity to the Drule Empire that would otherwise have ended up as another Planet of Hats with its own homogenous dominant species and culture.
• In Voltron: Fleet of Doom, it's revealed that the bespectacled Chip is the older brother of the similarly glasses-wearing Pidge, pilot of the Green Lion of Lion Force Voltron.
  • The "Fleet" part of the title Fleet of Doom is a reference to the combined Drule and Planet Doom fleet as well as the full title of one of the anime it's adapted from, Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.
  • Fleet of Doom also showcases a Voltron-exclusive Super Robot "Lo-Tron" piloted by Prince Lotor himself, which is a mix between a Decepticon and a Robeast parody of Voltron^note using a Drule Skull Ship, a Scorpion Robeast, a Stag Beetle Robeast, an Armadillo Robeast, and a Rhino Robeast.
  • The Fleet of Doom special isn't the first time two or more Humongous Mecha shows have crossed over^note (Toei made yearly crossover films all the way back to the Getter Robo days, but at the very least Fleet of Doom is the first time it happened on U.S. television), so it can be considered an occidental shout-out to Toei's various unreleased Super Robot Crossover films.^note This includes the following:
    • Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo
    • Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robot G: Great Sky Clash
    • UFO Robot Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger
    • Grendizer, Getter Robo G and Great Mazinger: Decisive Showdown! The Giant Sea Beast

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